To all the mom’s out there – this part of life sure didn’t come with a manual or even a how-to pamphlet did it? Not a single one of those “classes” you can take before you have your first baby really prepare you for any of the wild things that will happen in your life after you become a mom. They don’t tell you that the first time you look into the eyes of your baby son or daughter you will instantly be filled with a kind of love you’ve never known before. How much you’ll grow up right alongside your child as they grow. That you’ll soon find things you thought seriously gross before really aren’t. That baby spit is actually an accentuating color to your outfit. Yeah, my shirt is green, blue and well what color is that spit? Oh yeah, it’s smells like bananas so it must be a hue of yellow. That although you want to be fiercely protective you’ll learn to let them grow and learn on their own, and that is SCARY. That you will invest so much time into their lives and their future and all so willingly, you’ll look back and wonder where the last 12 years went and that ultimately you wouldn’t change a SINGLE thing about being a mom. Except maybe more private time while you’re in the bathroom… So to all you moms out there when it feels like an uphill battle, do not worry!

To all the mom's out there - this part of life sure didn't come with a manual or even a how-to pamphlet did it? Not a si...

I know you’ve seen those articles or funny postings on what kids sometimes put as their answer on math questions or tests at school. I’ve seen them and some of them are hilarious, that is until your own child has an answer like that. Zach works ahead on his math lessons. Although he gets the concepts he is just a slow paced math kind of guy. I check his homework for him sometimes and last night problem number three was “Using estimates find the quotient of 30,497 and 48.” The super smart guy’s simple answer “Ok”. Seriously, that’s all he wrote was “Ok.” I told him, I think they want you to actually show what you rounded each number to then divide. His response “Oh well, I just thought they wanted me to do it in my head.” Oy……

I know you've seen those articles or funny postings on what kids sometimes put as their answer on math questions or test...

Work stuff, bank stuff, school PTC stuff, that idea to build a cool bookshelf list, grocery shopping list, looking for a free weekend that doesn’t have us camping out for Boy Scouts on the calendar, don’t forget the tea you made outside. Wait why am I home on Monday, oh yes the oldest boy is sick. In and out of the germ filled room every hour for juice and to check on him. I’m home forget the list, clean. Clean everything, whoops got distracted by an old scrapbook. Oh man, the vacuum doesn’t suck anymore, clean the filter…. Do the laundry. Wash my hands a million times so I don’t get sick!!! Thank goodness the playlist is rocking today!

Today is the last day of summer for my boys. School starts tomorrow. I spent my entire day doing laundry. I of course waited until the last minute to wash new uniform pants etc. I noticed something odd about the fourth load in – it was mostly my youngest boys clothes and I didn’t fold a single pair of underwear. That’s odd, I thought.I walked into the front room where some other laundry was and then it hit me, there wasn’t a single pair of underwear that belonged to my youngest anywhere in the clean laundry. I was befuddled. Where on earth are his underwear. Then I thought, “What are the odds?”

I walked into his room and asked where all his dirty underwear were, he said he didn’t have any. (Recall I was gone for about 4 days earlier this week). Then I realized, he hasn’t been wearing any underwear for about a week or so, and he confirmed it. Um, ok. I walked out and relayed this information to his daddy and said, “Tag, your it. This is outta my realm. You explain to him why he has to wear some sort of underwear.” In the end I went out and bought a size larger underwear which hopefully won’t “feel like it’s cutting his legs off and be all itchy.”

Funny how doing laundry has it’s own set of challenges. Another example is my oldest has shorts that have multiple pockets, like 20 of them. He stuffs trash in every single one of them and it takes ten minutes per pair of shorts fishing all the wrappers and other miscellaneous trash out of the pockets. I find bottle caps, pencils, erasers, tissues, rubber frogs, and lego men in my dryer. No wonder it broke a few months back. It’s over worked and under paid, kind of like me….

Did I mention how excited we are they are going back to school, so much so we’ll be doing this –

Today is the last day of summer for my boys. School starts tomorrow. I spent my entire day doing laundry. I of course wa...

Last year my dad turned 60. I thought it was a big deal so my brothers and I wheeled and dealed for about three weeks to plan a surprise party down in Port O’Connor for him. And we actually surprised him. His sister came down from near Dallas and a few of his good friends came as well, both of my brothers and all of our families were there. We hit up dad’s old college buddy and used his super nice fishing lodge. Casey’s job was to distract my dad and keep him busy that day. He started by going out fishing with my dad and one of his buddies, at some point in the morning I get this text message – “I’m not catching any fish, but your dad is. He also made me a margarita with enough alcohol in it to kill every germ on planet earth. You owe me big time.” The A&M football game provided the final distraction and dad showed up actually surprised, we had a bunch of food and fun. This year I got him a card and a bag of jalapeno’s from my garden. Yeah, I set the bar way too high last year.

I am my daddy’s girl. When I was little I always knew that if anything bad happened we’d be okay because my dad could do just about anything. If it flooded we had a boat and my dad could catch fish to feed us. If someone broke into our house my dad could protect us because he knew how to use a gun. You get the idea. My dad protected me. He also knew when to not protect me and let me learn and grow up. He taught me to work hard (I have no issues push mowing the majority of our large yard or helping build a cabinet) and to work smart. He gave me everything I ever needed to be who I am today. Thank you dad and Happy 61st Birthday!!!!

Last year my dad turned 60. I thought it was a big deal so my brothers and I wheeled and dealed for about three weeks to...

The first weekend in November is traditionally Casey’s guys only camping trip. No guys under 18 allowed so it’s a me and the boys only weekend. The boys already had Friday off school since it was the end of the first grading period, but Wednesday night and into Thursday morning we had about 15 inches of rain fall. Which led to flooding (not us, we live on top of a hill) and school cancellations. Introducing a four day weekend for the boys. We had already planned to head south towards the coast and go fishing with my folks so we headed out Friday afternoon in the Jeep, just the three of us. We arrived in Port O’Connor around 6:30pm or so and the water was as smooth as glass. No wind, no breeze, just quiet. Finally for once, we were at the coast and it wasn’t windy. Mother nature sure fooled us. By midnight I could hear the wind howling outside as I slept on a slightly deflating air mattress with my 5 foot, 125 pound 11 year old who likes to sleep way up in my personal space. No point in waking up early to go fishing.

After some breakfast we decided to hop in the boat and head down the canal to see if maybe we could try some fishing. First clue should have been all the barges stopped in the canal, angled into the sand bars and not going anywhere. We headed to a flats area to try a drift (lots of duck hunters were out there) and as I stood up on the bow and cast out a few times my shirt whipped into the wind making me feel like I was part of a sail on a boat. No luck. Thanks for trying though dad. We spent the rest of the weekend at home with my folks hanging out, cooking some good bacon wrapped shrimp. Always good to breathe some sea air in though.

The first weekend in November is traditionally Casey's guys only camping trip. No guys under 18 allowed so it's a me and...